Performing some quick statistical analyses in classic #RStats and neatly “knitting” them into a PDF using #RMarkdown, #knitr, and #MacTeX #texLaTeX.
Call me old-fashioned, but I really enjoy this workflow. 
Performing some quick statistical analyses in classic #RStats and neatly “knitting” them into a PDF using #RMarkdown, #knitr, and #MacTeX #texLaTeX.
Call me old-fashioned, but I really enjoy this workflow.
From #CTAN:
Javier Bezos López submitted an update to the babel package.
Version: 25.16 2025-11-23
License: lppl1.3
Summary description: Multilingual support for LaTeX, LuaLaTeX, XeLaTeX, and Plain TeX
https://latex3.github.io/babel/news/whats-new-in-babel-25.16.html
https://ctan.org/pkg/babel
#TeXLaTeX 🇺🇳
From #CTAN:
Javier Bezos López submitted an update to the babel package.
Version: 25.16 2025-11-23
License: lppl1.3
Summary description: Multilingual support for LaTeX, LuaLaTeX, XeLaTeX, and Plain TeX
https://latex3.github.io/babel/news/whats-new-in-babel-25.16.html
https://ctan.org/pkg/babel
#TeXLaTeX 🇺🇳
#Astronomy
This is the "Planétaire ou planisphère nouveau" by M. Flécheux (1780).
A paper (or cardboard) astronomical instrument, with which you can derive some astronomical parameters.
Background: a star chart and a calendar, a pivoting ruler carrying scales and a set of 3 rotating wheels.
Knowing the date, longitude and local time, you can find the time of passage of stars or Moon at the meridian. Inversely you can derive your longitude by the time of meridian passage. Flécheux claims that his instrument is a solution to the longitude problem at sea, if you carry a watch with the time of the home port... quite a bold statement, given the modest size of the hour wheel, but certainly a major question of his time. In 1780 only a few marine chronometers were available.
Otherwise a pretty instrument. To understand how it works, I couldn't help making a modern reproduction ( #TeXLaTeX and #python).
The original (perhaps unique extant copy?) is sold 20000 GBP in London...
#Astronomy
This is the "Planétaire ou planisphère nouveau" by M. Flécheux (1780).
A paper (or cardboard) astronomical instrument, with which you can derive some astronomical parameters.
Background: a star chart and a calendar, a pivoting ruler carrying scales and a set of 3 rotating wheels.
Knowing the date, longitude and local time, you can find the time of passage of stars or Moon at the meridian. Inversely you can derive your longitude by the time of meridian passage. Flécheux claims that his instrument is a solution to the longitude problem at sea, if you carry a watch with the time of the home port... quite a bold statement, given the modest size of the hour wheel, but certainly a major question of his time. In 1780 only a few marine chronometers were available.
Otherwise a pretty instrument. To understand how it works, I couldn't help making a modern reproduction ( #TeXLaTeX and #python).
The original (perhaps unique extant copy?) is sold 20000 GBP in London...
From #CTAN:
Alain Matthes submitted an update to the tkz-elements package.
Version: 4.35c 2025-11-08
License: lppl1.3c
Summary description: A Lua library for drawing Euclidean geometry with TikZ or tkz-euclide
From #CTAN:
Alain Matthes submitted an update to the tkz-elements package.
Version: 4.35c 2025-11-08
License: lppl1.3c
Summary description: A Lua library for drawing Euclidean geometry with TikZ or tkz-euclide
Update on on // foss.events:
Call for Participation and Registration have been added for
DANTE by DANTE e.V. on 11-13 March 2026 in Firma WIWA Wilhelm Wagner GmbH & Co.KG, Werk 2 in #Lahnau-Waldgirmes, #Germany
Find out more on
https://foss.events/2026/03-11-dante.html
Connect via official hashtag(s): #TeXLaTeX
From #CTAN:
Qirui Zeng submitted the terminalcode package.
Version: 0.9.0 2025-11-02
License: mit
Summary description: Terminal-style code display with ANSI colors, UTF-8 box-drawing, and dark/light themes
https://github.com/LoveElysia1314/terminalcode-sty
https://ctan.org/pkg/terminalcode
From #CTAN:
Daniel Flipo submitted an update to the yfonts-otf package.
Version number: 0.60 2025-10-31
License type: ofl lppl1.3
Summary description: OpenType version of the Old German fonts designed by Yannis Haralambous
From #CTAN:
Qirui Zeng submitted the terminalcode package.
Version: 0.9.0 2025-11-02
License: mit
Summary description: Terminal-style code display with ANSI colors, UTF-8 box-drawing, and dark/light themes
https://github.com/LoveElysia1314/terminalcode-sty
https://ctan.org/pkg/terminalcode
From #CTAN:
Daniel Flipo submitted an update to the yfonts-otf package.
Version number: 0.60 2025-10-31
License type: ofl lppl1.3
Summary description: OpenType version of the Old German fonts designed by Yannis Haralambous
👻 🎃 JabRef 6.0-alpha.3 Release 🎃 👻
Trick or treat! Happy Halloween from the JabRef team! We are happy to announce the release of JabRef 6.0 Alpha 3
Release Highlights:
- Arm64 Linux support,
- Improved UI for Citations
- New Fetchers: #OpenAlex and #EuropePMC
- Initial Cite As You Write endpoint
- First CLI version #JabKit with integrity check
- #CSL style fixes for #LibreOffice
- #JavaFX 25
#java #opensource #linux #arm #bibliography #academia #citations #texlatex #JabRef #GSOC #gsoc2025
👻 🎃 JabRef 6.0-alpha.3 Release 🎃 👻
Trick or treat! Happy Halloween from the JabRef team! We are happy to announce the release of JabRef 6.0 Alpha 3
Release Highlights:
- Arm64 Linux support,
- Improved UI for Citations
- New Fetchers: #OpenAlex and #EuropePMC
- Initial Cite As You Write endpoint
- First CLI version #JabKit with integrity check
- #CSL style fixes for #LibreOffice
- #JavaFX 25
#java #opensource #linux #arm #bibliography #academia #citations #texlatex #JabRef #GSOC #gsoc2025
I've come to the conclusion that, while I am still using #Windows 11 out of inertia, it's time to contemplate an exit plan towards #Linux . The switch won't be any time soon (I have too much other stuff on my plate for the foreseeable future), but I do want to avoid paying further license fees to #Microsoft .
Major areas of concern:
- My #Steam library. I am by no means a heavy gamer, but I want to check if the major games I enjoy are known to work on Linux.
- Migrating away from #GoogleDrive towards #NextCloud is going to be a major chore, but it's something I can start in advance.
- I am a very heavy user of Notepad++ for my #TeXLaTeX typesetting, so I need a replacement whose user experience comes close (and no, neither vim nor emacs count).
As for what distribution to choose... I dunno. Lots of people at my place of work use #Debian , so maybe that would be a good idea?
Simplify custom LaTeX templates maintenance with "partials" & baked-in internal template snippets: The `common.latex` partial is the most important, as it contains almost all LaTeX definitions and instructions necessary to compile pandoc-generated LaTeX code.
% In LaTeX templates, use
$common.latex()$
Manual template updates become mostly unnecessary this way.
See the contents of the partial with
pandoc --print-default-data-file=templates/common.latex
Simplify custom LaTeX templates maintenance with "partials" & baked-in internal template snippets: The `common.latex` partial is the most important, as it contains almost all LaTeX definitions and instructions necessary to compile pandoc-generated LaTeX code.
% In LaTeX templates, use
$common.latex()$
Manual template updates become mostly unnecessary this way.
See the contents of the partial with
pandoc --print-default-data-file=templates/common.latex
Besides the `common.latex` partial, there are also:
• `passoptions.latex` – options for packages that may be loaded implicitly (should come before `\begin{document}`)
• `fonts.latex` – Fonts setup
• `font-settings.latex` – Fonts configs
• `hypersetup.latex` – Options for the “hypertext” package (hyperlinks and metadata)
• `after-header-includes.latex` – Everything that *must* happen late.
Using all of these partials in custom templates gives maximum robustness.
Simplify custom LaTeX templates maintenance with "partials" & baked-in internal template snippets: The `common.latex` partial is the most important, as it contains almost all LaTeX definitions and instructions necessary to compile pandoc-generated LaTeX code.
% In LaTeX templates, use
$common.latex()$
Manual template updates become mostly unnecessary this way.
See the contents of the partial with
pandoc --print-default-data-file=templates/common.latex
